Poland's Olympic hammer throw champion Anita Wlodarczyk maintained her unbeaten run in Bydgoszcz tonight ©Getty Images

The Irena Szewińska Memorial in Bydgoszcz produced the expected thunderous hammer-throwing action tonight as three-times Olympic women’s champion Anita Wlodarczyk maintained her unbeaten run and Olympic men’s champion Wojciech Nowicki narrowly beat compatriot and four-times world champion Pawel Fajdek.

Wlodarczyk topped a fiercely-contested event with a best of 74.13 metres, extending the win streak she established in the same arena a year ago.

Azerbaijan’s Hanna Skydan was not far behind with 73.19m, while Poland’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Malwina Kopron was third on 72.44m.

Nowicki won with a mighty fourth-round effort of 80.28m, but Fajdek almost took the lead off him in the following round with a throw of 80.19m.

Meanwhile in the men’s shot put, Tom Walsh of New Zealand, the 2017 world champion, won the battle of the giants with the athlete who took that title in 2015 and 2019, Joe Kovacs, throwing 21.80m to the American’s 21.76m, with Brazil’s world indoor champion Darlan Romani third on 21.45m.

In the women’s 100m hurdles, Tia Jones, the 2018 world under-20 champion from the United States earned victory in 12.79sec, ahead of African record-holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, who clocked 12.80.

Elijah Hall-Thompson of the United States won the men’s 100m in 10.02sec from Britain’s Jeremiah Azu, who recorded 10.18.

Jamal Britt of the United States, sixth fastest after the heats of the men’s 110m hurdles, stepped up to earn a surprise victory in 13.35, with local favourite Damian Cyzkier second in 13.36.

Tony van Diepen, a member of the Dutch quartet that took Olympic silver in the men’s 4x400m relay last year, won the men’s 800m in a personal best of 1min 44.31sec from South Africa’s Tshepo Tshite, who clocked 1:44.59, getting second place on a photo-finish from Sweden’s Andreas Kramer.

Olympic pole vault silver medallist Chris Nilsen of the United States, returning to the arena where he set a meeting record of 5.92m last year, did not need to reach such heights for victory this time.

He was the only man to clear 5.80m, with three athletes getting over 5.70m - in ranking order, fellow American Jacob Wooten, France’s Valentin Lavillenie and home vaulter Piotr Lisek.

The women’s 100m went to Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye in 11.17sec, from Brazil’s Vitoria Cristina Rosa, who clocked 11.32.

Melissa Gonzalez set a Colombian record of 54.80sec to win the women’s 400m hurdles from Ukraine’s Viktoriya Tkachuk, who clocked 54.81.